This Phase I SBIR research addresses two important and related needs regarding management of the national herd during an animal disease outbreak. First, is the need to facilitate keeping the national animal tracking databases (ATDs) as complete, accurate, and up-to-date as possible. The second is the need to immediately stop the transport of potentially-infectious animals during an animal disease outbreak without completely shutting down the flow of commerce. To address these needs, SSI?s existing TrueTag system, which is currently being field validated, will be expanded to add Transport Manifest Records (TMRs) to the tag data of individual animals. TrueTag comprises an active electronic identification (EID) tag capable of securely storing confidential health- and premises-history data directly on-animal. Each external tag is also coupled with an electronic rumen bolus. The resulting system provides secure, tamper-proof, electronic identification as well as continuous monitoring of each animal?s deep-body temperature. The external tag comprises a transceiver which can securely communicate with other external devices. This capability provides an opportunity to securely use confidential on-animal premises-history data to quickly stop the transport of potentially-infectious animals without stopping the transport of healthy animals. The transceiver can also facilitate automated updates of the national animal tracking databases (ATDs). Automated updates can improve accuracy and completeness of the databases while reducing data-entry costs and delays. Up-to-date and more complete ATDs will improve animal traceability during an animal disease event. OBJECTIVES: The goal of this USDA SBIR Phase I project is to evaluate the feasibility of creating and using on-animal Transport Manifest Records (TMRs) to stop the transport of potentially-infectious cattle in the wake of a national animal disease emergency. The TMRs will be an expanded capability of an existing active electronic identification (EID) tag currently being field validated. This Phase I project will accomplish the following objectives: 1) Demonstrate the ability to create and store immutable "Okay to Transport" and "NOT Okay to Transport" date- and time-stamped TMRs on individual animal's tags, 2) Demonstrate the ability to perform a simulated emergency such as would be used to perform periodic validations of the reliability and efficacy of a nationwide TMR "watch" system (i.e. perform a scheduled "Fire Drill" of the system), and 3) Validate the ability for a handheld or fixed query device to simultaneously query the tags of multiple individual animals to view their "Okay to Transport," "NOT Okay to Transport," and "Fire Drill" TMRs. Successful completion of this project will demonstrate an EID system that can determine an animal's suitability for transport during a national or regional animal disease event. It will provide the groundwork for a Phase II project that will develop and publish an open standard for retrieval and display of on-animal electronic TMRs. APPROACH: Experiments will be conducted in a feedlot setting and also in a transport setting. In the feedlot setting, experimental treatments will be 1) density of cattle in holding pens and 2) pen fence material. In the transport setting, experimental treatments will be 1) trailer type, 2) travel speed, and 3) reader height. In both experiments, data for successful reads will be calculated as: 1) the number of reads successfully obtained (at first issuance) divided by the total number of cattle that were attempted to be read, 2) the number of reads successfully obtained (at first issuance) divided by the number of cattle with fully functional tags, and 3) the number of reads successfully obtained (at first or second issuance) divided by the total number of cattle that were attempted to be read
